JAPAN’S RULING PARTY WANTS HUGE DEFENSE BUDGET HIKE

A joint defense panel of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party approved a draft proposal for the government to "drastically" increase the country's defense budget in the face of the increased security threat posed by China in the East and South China seas, Reito Kaneko reported for Kyodo News.

The move seeking a rise in the budget comes as neighboring countries, including China, are increasing their defense budgets and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has set a target for its members to spend at least 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on defense, according to the proposal.

Japan's defense budget has long amounted to around 1 percent of the country's GDP, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Its defense spending in fiscal 2020 totaled 5.31 trillion yen ($48.8 billion), accounting for 0.9 percent of the country's GDP.

China's defense spending, meanwhile, has increased 10-fold from 2000 and is now four times that of Japan's, the proposal said.

Taku Otsuka, the head of the team of policymakers, said given the drastic changes to the security environment surrounding Japan over the past few years, weapons acquisition must take place faster than initially targeted in the National Defense Program Guidelines and Mid-Term Defense Program, both formulated in 2018.

"We must have a budget in place that is suitable" for dealing with the current situation, bearing in mind Japan's position in leading the international community and being "at the forefront of a region where security is deteriorating the most," he told reporters after the meeting.

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